SIMS Spring "non solus" client update

[timlineuk]

Due to the large number of staff one-to-one laptops the decision was made not to update them via Solus but to simply extract the files into the sims setups directory allowing the end user to dictate when SIMS is updates. Front office and in classroom staff PCs do update via Solus.

 

Before now this has always worked very smoothly but i now appear to have a permissions issue as it will not fully update when logged on as a limited user account.

 

My staff AD group has full control of the setups folder and the SIMS folder on the local machine, as has been advised previously.

 

When the user has run the update they are now presented with;

 

 

If i click "yes" SIMS will load and display the correct version on the splash screen and under "about"

 

I may look to doing a solus roll out in the new term but that doesn't help my current situation.

 

Many thanks

[vikpaw]

You can't run it like that though, unfortunately.

You'll need to run simsapplicationssetup for them.

[vikpaw]

If they're online, and you have permission (i'm guessing they are your network devices), you might be able to run it from a remote command prompt, so long as they are not logged in to SIMS at the time.

PS Tools are really useful for doing this.

[timlineuk]

Thanks for those replies.

The thing that perplexes me is that this has been possible on previous updates... i've updated the setups directory > SIMS.ini is pointing to the correct one > permissions are (seemingly) set correctly and staff have been able to freely update without issue... until now

[vikpaw]

The thing that perplexes me is that this has been possible on previous updates...

It's SIMS, what do you expect?

IIRC you needed slightly broader permissions, such as over the temp folder, over the sims.ini and connect.ini, and somewhere else on the local machine...

[timlineuk]

Yeah, i guess i should expect nothing less!

The user has full control over their app data \ temp folder.

I've run process monitor but that's not showing any complaints either

[vikpaw]

How many staff? Are they on wireless?

Many moons ago, I wrote a little program to intercept the update request and ask the user to connect to the wired lan, and confirm they actually wanted to run it.

[timlineuk]

It'll be 70 to 80 devices, all wireless.

At the moment i'm thinking we're going to have to do a runaround Tuesday morning to get this done and being forced over to getting Solus3 onto all

[Meldrew]

Are you able to roll it out via a GPO or your usual software deployment system? We have the same problem with lots of staff laptops of which some rarely come on site, so SOLUS doesn't work too well for us, so we (like you) extract the software, then roll it out via our software deployment system.

 

Meldrew

[timlineuk]

possibly possible but i cant just help feel i'm missing something in this situation.

[vikpaw]

...the will to live...?

[timlineuk]

aside from that

[vikpaw]

..a browser based MIS with a single point of install/update ...

sorry it had to be said.

[AJWhite1970]

SIMS client is effectively a portable app, we just copy the SIMS folder from an upgraded working install to any remote pc's via PDQ or a fastcopy script

[timlineuk]

Got it!! GP wasn't updating the Program files(x86)\SIMS folder permissions with my staff group.

Resolved that little issue as well as manually adding the security setting on my test laptop and all was well. managed to nab another laptop and tested all fine on that one too!

 

So, yes. Luckily it will still work the way i want it to

[vikpaw]

Amazeballs [emoji1474]

[vikpaw]

SIMS client is effectively a portable app, we just copy the SIMS folder from an upgraded working install to any remote pc's via PDQ or a fastcopy script

 

I guess that's fine for the main app. Surely it would fall down when using Exams and Nova as they do crazy things and require dlls to be registered, access to other areas...

[Banjo]

I guess that's fine for the main app. Surely it would fall down when using Exams and Nova as they do crazy things and require dlls to be registered, access to other areas...

 

Once its been installed on a device, unzipping over the top with the newer version works just fine.

[vikpaw]

Once its been installed on a device, unzipping over the top with the newer version works just fine.

 

Is that a solution to the Exams Automation error?

[Sylv3r]

Is that a solution to the Exams Automation error?

 

Don't think a copy and paste job will fix that problem. I've generally had to log onto a machine as admin and run the exams and like you say, it probably registers some new DLL's.